Wintervention

The 61st-annual Warren Miller ski movie isnt afraid of an old pun. Skiers are addicted to skiing, so they need ... a Wintervention. Get it? If not, the joke is often repeated over the next 98 minutes. But what makes the venerable franchise endurable, like the hours-long weekend drive to Crystal, is the snowy payoff. It doesnt matter if the featured athletes only speak in clichés, if the movie relentlessly plugs ski resorts and helicopter-guiding services, or if the music sucksyou can just cover your ears and imagine its you being deposited by chopper at the top of an untracked peak in Alaskas Chugach Range. Or getting off the funicular in the Arlberg. Or dropping into the back bowls at Vail. Since it never mentions ticket prices, air fares, or the cost of helicopter time, Wintervention peddles a pleasant fantasy in these recessionary times. Few of us will be making such distant, expensive trips this season. But the predicted La Niña cycle means big local dumps in January. And Alpental is a lot closer than Antarctica, where penguins peer incuriously at the skiers among them. (Then Nov. 16 at Kirkland Performance and Nov. 19-20 at McCaw Hall.) (NR) BRIAN MILLER